Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online lecture from ARTscapades looking at how Rodin was influenced in dancers and in particular Nijinsky. Juliet Bellow, from the American University and the author of a book of the same title, talked us through three sources of dance influence for Rodin, the Art Nouveau solo dancer Lois Fuller, the Cambodian Royal Ballet who visited Paris in 1906 and Ballet Russe and Nijinsky. For this talk she concentrated on the latter and   looked in detail at a small sculpture Rodin made of the dancer in 1912. She talked about how Rodin was influenced by the ballet “Apres Midi du Faune” and in turn how the dancer looked to sculpture for inspiration for his choreography. She speculated on how the work was made based on recent studies of two versions and concluded that it was made to be held in the hand and turned and in doing so it took on various aspects of the ballet. She also broadened the lecture out to show how Rodin was a supporter of the republican cause and positio...

Fascinating discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their garden festival exploring the value of vanishing rural skills and what we might recover when we live closer to the land. The event brought together hedge layer Paul Lamb and charcoal burner Ben Short interviewed by   Lulah Ellender. They read from their respective books then outlined how they had discovered their alternative professions and what it has meant to them to work on the land. They then discussed the importance of not losing rural skills and what they brought to the environment and to the people who practiced them.

Charming discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their garden festival focusing on the gardens of four iconic female gardeners Annie Guilfoyle ably chaired the event and was   joined by Rebecca Lemonius, custodian of Long Barn (where Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson created their first garden); Julia Boulton, Beth Chatto’s granddaughter and CEO of Beth Chatto Plants and Garden and Claire Greenslade, former Head Gardener at Hestercombe Gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Amongst the exchange of ideas they discussed what it was like to manage a historic garden and how they felt the influence of their predecessors. Lemonius said the wonderful quote of Vita “I hear her words but they are written”. Greenslade remarked on bad decisions made by Jeykll which they have to live with like planting in walls which breaks them. As ever the questions at Charleston were insightful and fun.  

Monumental exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of work by Jenny Saville. I love Saville’s work and it was dramatic to see so much of it together. The work is on a monumental scale. At first view it can be quite brutal but the more you look the more beautiful it appears and the clearer the detail becomes. I particularly liked the multi-figure works and the blending of different coloured flesh. Closed 7 September 2025 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Useful online lecture from the National Gallery discussing the new still-life room created as a result of the recent rehang of the collection. Bart Cornelis, Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings 1600-1800 at the gallery and Sarah Herring, an associate curator there outlined the history of still-life painting and discussed the paintings they had chosen for the room to illustrate this. The room covers from the 17th to the 19th century. They then widened the talk out to point us at 20th century examples by Cezanne and Picasso in rooms 43 and 45. This was followed by a lively Q&A session ranging from the role of insects in these paintings, through the Roman frescos in Pompeii and a discussion of who bought this pictures.

Excellent online lecture from ARTscapades comparing the work of Anselm Kiefer and Vincent Van Gogh. Although the talk was instigated by the current exhibition of the same title at the Royal Academy, Ben Street made it more than a description of the show and instead developed a clear and well thought out discussion of the similarities in the artists work despite working about a century apart. He explained how Kiefer, the contemporary artist, has always responded to Van Gogh’s work from his first trip out of German using a travel grant to retrace Van Gogh’s travels in Europe. He spent time comparing works by both artists and tracing the links. He discussed the concept of ‘deskilling’ in art as well as how both artists view the role of artists. My favourite section looked at how we view older art with contemporary eyes bringing to it events which have happened since the work was painted. For example how can we look at Van Gogh’s painting of his boots without thinking of the image...